The Octopus extension for GitHub Copilot allows read only queries of cloud Octopus instances via GitHub Copilot.
The Octopus extension is an experiment. It is not covered by service level agreements.
The goal of the Octopus extension is to provide a middle ground between the web based UI and the REST API. Prior to the Octopus extension, tasks that can not be performed via the web UI could only be achieved through custom scripts that interacted with the REST API. Working with the REST API requires a good understanding of the Octopus domain model and the ability to write custom code. The Octopus extension provides the ability to query the configuration and state of an Octopus instance via natural language prompts.
Getting started
The Octopus extension has 3 prerequisites:
- An Octopus Cloud instance
- An API key
- A GitHub Copilot account
Creating an Octopus cloud instance
The Octopus extension is available for cloud Octopus instances. Click here to sign up for a trial cloud Octopus instance.
Creating the Octopus API key
The Octopus extension requires an API key to interact with the Octopus server.
The Octopus extension only requires read access to the Octopus instance. It is recommended that you create a service account that belongs to a team with read-only permissions. The documentation here provides a sample Terraform module to create a read-only role, a team referencing the role, and a service account belonging to the team.
Creating a GitHub Copilot account
You can sign up for a GitHub Copilot account here.
You can also use the web based interface without GitHub Copilot. See the section “Test query website” for more details.
Querying Octopus with Copilot
Queries directed to @octopus-ai-app in the GitHub Copilot chat window are answered by the Octopus extension. For example, the following query displays the dashboard of the Default space:
@octopus-ai-app Show the dashboard for the "Default" space
The first request to the Octopus extension will prompt you to complete a login with the following response:
To continue chatting please log in
Click the log in link to open the Octopus extension login page. You will first be required to log in via GitHub. You must use the same GitHub credentials as the user logged into the GitHub Copilot chat. You are then prompted to enter the URL and API key of your Octopus instance:
Click the Submit button to save your Octopus details. You can then return to the Copilot chat.
You must log in to Octopus every 8 hours. It is recommended you save the Octopus details in your web browser’s password manager or other password manager to streamline this login process.
Test query website
A test website allows you to query Octopus without Copilot. You must enter a GitHub token as identification, and complete the log in process with the same user as the one associated with the GitHub token. You can then query your Octopus instance via the web form in the same way you would query it from Copilot.
Queries entered into the test website do not need to mention @octopus-ai-app.
Saving default values
Users will often have a specific project, environment, space, tenant, and channel that they wish to query without explicitly typing the resource names in each prompt. To save default values for these resources, enter the following prompts:
@octopus-ai-app Set the default space to "My Space"@octopus-ai-app Set the default project to "My Project"@octopus-ai-app Set the default environment to "My Environment"@octopus-ai-app Set the default channel to "My Channel"@octopus-ai-app Set the default tenant to "My Tenant"
With default values set, you can enter a query like @octopus-ai-app Show me the state of the latest deployment and the query will return the details of the latest deployment for the project My Project to the environment My Environment with the channel My Channel and tenant My Tenant in the space My Space.
This is equivalent to the prompt @octopus-ai-app Show me the state of the latest deployment of the project "My Project" to the environment "My Environment" for the channel "My Channel" and tenant "My Tenant" in the space "My Space".
Resource names included in a prompt override the defaults. So the query @octopus-ai-app Show me the state of the latest deployment of the project "My Web App" will show the details of the project My Web App and ignore the default project name.
Default values can be cleared with the prompt @octopus-ai-app Remove default values.
Example queries
The following are example queries you can use to test the Octopus extension:
@octopus-ai-app What projects exist in the "Target - Kubernetes" space?@octopus-ai-app Show the last lines from the latest deployment of "Web App" to the "Production" environment in the "Target - Kubernetes" space in a markdown code block.@octopus-ai-app Show the step names from the "Web App" project in the "Target - Kubernetes" space@octopus-ai-app How do I use the server side apply feature?@octopus-ai-app Find the deployments created after 2024-04-16T00:00:00+10:00 and before 2024-04-17T00:00:00+10:00 for the "Web App" project in the "Target - Kubernetes" space to the "Production" environment. Then find the average deployment duration.
Prompt engineering tips
This documentation provides prompt engineering tips.
Source code
The Octopus extension source code can be found on GitHub.
The Octopus extension generates much of the prompt context using the Octoterra application. The source code for Octoterra is found on GitHub.
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Page updated on Wednesday, October 4, 2023